Once the demonstration was finished, I continued my cultivation. There wasn't much special about it for the moment. It was basically just redoing everything I had done before, just in a new environment, though, it wasn't as if interesting things weren't happening elsewhere.
Days became weeks, then months, and then years. It took some time, but I had finally regained the strength I had displayed during my battle with Ink. It was also the same day that…
Jiang Guoliang, my new brother-in-law, and the first prince of Hell. "I see you've got your strength back now. How about we spar?"
His offer seemed nice, so I accepted. It wasn't until later that I realized just how far above me he was. This more of him bullying a little brother, than it was anything else. That said, he was a valuable benchmark to test myself against. One, I began to do it regularly. However, these sparring matches weren't the only things I did to grow stronger.
The more mundane part of my training was simply to destroy the souls of the damned, transforming them into energy for myself to use. On the whole these souls were rather weak, and thus weren't very good as a fuel source. However, there was a bit more to it than just fuel, it was the agony they experienced. That was the more important piece of the puzzle that radically increased my cultivation. That and Hell really needed to clean out the souls that had angered dragons… There were a lot of them.
One day, while I was doing this, Jiang Yanmei was drinking her favorite tea while she watched me work. She normally undressed me with her eyes, but today felt different. And I knew why. Even so, I decided to let her continue this way, for her own sake…
"Darling Husband, come sit, and have a cup with me." I did exactly that. "Husband, I need to come clean about something with you-"
"Oh? Is it about how you'd been stalking me my whole life?"
Flustered, and embarrassed, Jiang Yanmei blushed. "What? How did you know about that?"
I chuckled a little. "It was made painfully obvious to me after I was shown the battle I had with Ink. With such a viewing ability there wouldn't be any issues in stalking me."
"You're… You're not mad then?"
"Hmm, no, your interest in me is what has given me this excellent opportunity. That alone is enough to forgive such an invasion of privacy. Though, I'm curious, did you ever look in on my wives and I?"
Jiang Yanmei, turned a whole new shade of red as she nodded. "Yes, I was just so curious, and then enthralled, I even played with myself more than a few times while watching you. Imagining my insides being rearranged by your, amazing-"
I laughed. "I see, in that case, I'd have had to take you regardless of the situation, huh. My wives would never forgive me if I let such a wildly bold woman not join our bed."
"So…"
"There's nothing to forgive. Anything that would need to under normal circumstances has been more than made up for." I smirked. "Besides, I have you now."
"What about the matter of how you need to return home?"
"Well, for starters, I'll be taking you home with me. As for the reason I'm not able to leave right now, I don't mind it. I like the idea of opening the doorway myself. I consider it the limit required to ensure my guaranteed success over Ink."
She placed her tea cup down, and had that look in her eyes. "Husband, I want you, right now."
A request that was answered in kind right away.
~ 3000 Worlds ~
The inspection of the Voidcracks had gone smoothly, well, better than smoothly. Each of them radiated a powerful strength directly from the outside chaos. However, each one of these locations had a different effect. The Dao that surged forth from these after effects of my battle, were nothing to scoff at. The power was immense and extremely helpful in both cultivation advancement, and recovery.
As a result, of these finds, new training facilities were constructed with the haste I had instilled in the Human Race. This was a truly desperate time for the Human Race. Their strongest champion had fallen, it was really bad. However, those negative feelings would only go towards strengthening their enemy, Ink. Instead, they made an active effort to not let my sacrifice be in vain.
Training times were shortened, yet every cultivator was stronger. Their sense of duty was strong beforehand, but after what happened, there wasn't a soul that rested any longer than needed. There was also a rapid explosion in population. They needed a lot of hands on deck for everything, ranging from the average farmer, to the average cultivator.
One more thing was made abundantly clear during this period. There was little prejudice against anyone, by anyone. There was simply no time to worry about nonsense these days. People had their own dreams, and worked for them. However, there were also those who set aside their own desires for the sake of the future… This was most clearly seen in the women who had been staunchly opposed to rearing children of their loins. It wasn't many, but the women who did do this, were the ones that Star Boundary made sure to make them future Emperor Realm Masters at a minimum.
Star Boundary was clever, dangling such a tasty proposition in front of everyone like that. She was incentivizing rapid population growth. She wanted to continue that bulwark against the Ink Clan, and this one of the many tools she had at her disposal.
Yang Kai was almost never around. He was beyond busy going around to all of the different void cracks to study the various daos. Mu would accompany him to each location, and make improvements on her river as well. It wasn't until several decades in, that Yang Kai first manifested his own Space-time river like Mu's. Having an intact example nearby at all times proved to be rather effective.
Decades passed, as the human race continued their; containment of the Ink Clan, rapid improvement of strength. There was also a moment where Mu managed to convince Cang and Shi to each give her a child, both of them ended up giving her twins, so she ended up with two boys and two girls.
And after a little more than 500 years, the seal on Ink… Broke down, Ink escaped.